Jamaica's Trade Deficit Continues To Widen  

• Jamaica's expenditure on imports was valued at US$1,193.4 million for the period January to February 2023, an increase of 12.9% over the same period of 2022. This increase was due mainly to higher imports of “Raw Materials/Intermediate Goods”, “Fuels and Lubricants” and “Consumer Goods” which rose by 3.2%, 20.3% and 13.3% respectively.
• Earnings from total exports for the current review period amounted to US$325.4 million, 54.6% above the comparable 2022 period. This was due primarily to a 133.1% increase in the value of exports of “Crude Materials (excl. Fuels)”. Re-exports also increased during the January to February 2023 review period to US$84.7 million compared to US$32.2 million in 2022.
• Jamaica’s top five (5) import partners for the period were the United States of America (USA), China, Japan, Colombia and Turkey. Expenditure on imports from these countries increased to US$773.6 million, 16.5% above the US$663.9 million recorded in the similar 2022 period. This was due chiefly to higher imports of fuels from the USA.
• The top five destinations for Jamaica’s exports were the USA, Puerto Rico, the Russian Federation, Latvia and the United Kingdom. Exports to these countries increased by 75.3 per cent to US$256.1 million.
• This brings Jamaica's trade deficit for the period to US$868 million, which is US$21.5 million more than what was recorded over the same period last year. The country's deficit in goods and services was 14.0% of total GDP in 2019 and is anticipated to increase to 21.2% of GDP in 2023.

(Sources: STATIN and Fitch Solutions)